Blades, Pats keep heading in opposite directions

Two streaks continued Sunday at SaskTel Centre.

With a 4-1 WHL victory over the Regina Pats, the Saskatoon Blades extended their run of games with at least one point to seven games (6-0-1). The Pats, meanwhile, saw their losing streak reach seven games.

Saskatoon used a full team effort to sweep a home-and-home set from the Pats. The Blades won 5-2 at the Brandt Centre on Friday.

On Sunday, Nolan Maier made 27 saves as Saskatoon improved to 6-1-1 on the season.

The Blades showed why they have one of the most lethal power plays in the league on the first chance they got. Egor Sadorov found a loose puck in the slot and rifled it top corner at 4:58 of the first period to give the Blades the all-important first tally of the game.

Kyle Crnkovic assisted on the goal to extend his point streak to eight games.

The Pats tied it at 11:42 of the first, when Cole Dubinsky scored his fourth goal of the season with an assist from Connor Bedard.

After that, the Blades essentially took over for the remainder of the game. Just 1:43 into the second period, Brandon Lisowsky restored the lead by putting home a rebound for his fifth goal of the season.

Less than 10 minutes later, at 11:24, Tristen Robins scored on a dazzling shot to make it a 3-1 game. The goal gave Robins his league-leading 15th point of the season.

Moritz Elias continued the trend of scoring early into a period by striking at 1:41 of the third from a nearly impossible angle. That insurance goal would complete the scoring.

Matthew Kieper made 22 saves in the Regina net.

“I think we played a hard 60 minutes,” Lisowsky said. “We knew they were going to be desperate, but we were ready to play again, and we were happy about our effort.”

Lisowsky gave Maier a ton of credit for the win after a stellar game in net.

“He’s our leader,” Lisowsky said. “(He’s the) best goalie in the league by far. He gives us a lot of leadership back there and he’s talking to us on the bench and making sure we’re going. He makes some big saves to keep us in games.”

Saskatoon is to play host to the Moose Jaw Warriors on Wednesday. The Pats are idle until Friday, when they’re to visit the Swift Current Broncos.

— With files from 650 CKOM’s Dallas Dahlseide